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Beatles News
The year The Beatles broke up is burned in the minds of most fans of the Fab Four. Though there might not have been an exact day, everyone can agree it happened by spring 1970.
However, the real end of the group’s collaboration arrived the previous year. In a particularly detailed post-mortem in Rolling Stone, you find John Lennon shooting down a request by Paul McCartney to keep the band together for one last run.
“I wasn’t going to tell you, but I’m breaking the group up,” Lennon told Paul. It was September 1969.
Yet for fans who loved to see The Beatles in concert, the distancing had begun several years earlier — summer 1966, to be exact. That’s the last time anyone saw the band play multiple stops on a tour.
Decades later, the decision to stop touring only a few years after their arrival in America seems odd. But looking at the events leading up to it, you can see why The Beatles stopped playing live shows.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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It wasn’t quite rags to riches, but the story of Welsh singer Mary Hopkin’s dizzy rise during 1968 takes some beating. In May of that year, just as she was turning 18, she appeared on the British TV talent show Opportunity Knocks. Improbably, it would lead her into the inner circle of The Beatles and to an international No. 1.
Hopkin won that contest, and had the good fortune that the famous model Twiggy was watching the show. When she, in turn, was talking to Paul McCartney about potential artists for The Beatles’ new Apple label, Twiggy mentioned Mary. Soon afterwards, the singer received a message to call Peter Brown at Apple.
“So I rang up,” Hopkin remembered later, “and was put through to this guy with a Liverpool accent, who invited me to come up to London and sign a contract.
Source: Paul Sexton/udiscovermusic.com
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Peter Tork, the bassist for the Monkees, has died aged 77.
Tork, who also sang on a number of the band’s songs and played keyboards, had been diagnosed with a rare form of tongue cancer in 2009, though the cause of his death, which was confirmed by his sister, has not been announced.
Born in Washington DC in 1942, Tork – whose real name was Peter Thorkelson – joined the Monkees when he was 24 after the quartet were brought together by US TV executives aiming to create a teenage guitar-pop sensation to match the Beatles. Tork was recommended to audition by Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and was already an accomplished musician in his own right, having played on the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s. He said he was “mortified” when he turned up to an early Monkees studio date to be told that their band’s album had already been recorded by session musicians.
Source: Ben Beaumont-Thomas/theguardian.com
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While fans of The Beatles might have been distraught when the group broke up in 1970, they could follow each member of the Fab Four in his solo career.
In a sense, that gave them four albums for the price of one. Even if every one didn’t turn out like Revolver, you couldn’t argue with the output.
Soon enough, ex-Beatles were topping the charts with singles and albums as solo artists. Fans only had to wait until later in that first year, when George Harrison released his triple album, All Things Must Pass. Within those six sides was “My Sweet Lord,” the first track by an ex-Beatle to hit No. 1.
In the coming decades, Harrison would find himself on top of the charts with two more singles and as many albums. Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon (the last) followed their old bandmate to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the coming years as well.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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During a recent interview with Russia’s Sputnik News, John Lennon’s sister Julia Baird has shared her thoughts on biggest misconception about Yoko Ono and The Beatles.
Interviewer asked ‘Are there any misconceptions in the media about John’, Julia responded:
“There are lots. He had a very tough, chippy, chirpy exterior but he was actually as soft as jelly underneath, and not many people really bothered, they were enjoying the chippy chirpy interviews and they were able to criticise him, and they didn’t really look much beyond.
To be fair, John wouldn’t have let them much beyond either, but there was a completely different John from the one that you saw.”
Interviewer said:
“In your opinion is it unfair to blame the breakup of the Beatles on Yoko Ono?”
Source: Feyyaz Ustaer/metalheadzone.com
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Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s Wedding Album will be reissued this spring. Originally released in 1969, it was the couple’s third collaborative LP. Announced on Monday, which marks Ono’s 86th birthday, Unfinished Music No. 3: Wedding Album will be released via Secretly Canadian in partnership with Chimera Music on March 22nd, two days after Ono and Lennon’s 50th wedding anniversary.
Crafted by graphic designer John Kosh, the original packaging housed a box that commemorated the couple’s nuptials – they were married on March 20th, 1969 in Gibraltar. Photographs, a copy of their marriage certificate, drawings culled by Ono and Lennon, and a picture of a slice of wedding cake were among the souvenirs that came with the album. The labels are offering a “faithful recreation” of the Wedding Album, which will be available on limited edition white-vinyl LP, CD and digitally.
Source: Althea Legaspi/rollingstone.com
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Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the cultural center located at the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel, N.Y., announced today (February 19), the first acts that will perform at their edition of the festival’s 50th anniversary.
Ringo Starr will perform, as will several of the artists that played the legendary festival there in ’69, including Santana, Arlo Guthrie and Edgar Winter, at what’s being called Bethel Woods Music and Culture Festival. The Doobie Brothers, who are touring with Santana this summer, will also be appearing.
The four-day event will celebrate the golden anniversary of the original, historic event, generally considered the most famous music festival of all time. However, it is scaled back from the original plans first announced in December.
Coming August 16-18, 2019, nearly 50 years to the day after the original, this “pan-generational music, culture, and community event,” as it was called in a December press release, will be held at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which is approximately 90 minutes from New York City.
Source: Richard Porter/blog.beatlesinlondon.com
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Fans of The Beatles know there’s much more to the group than John Lennon and Paul McCartney. In any other band, two songwriters of that caliber would be more than enough. With The Beatles, you have a third heavyweight to contend with.
That would be George Harrison, whose songwriting skills had begun to peak late in the Fab Four’s time together. After delivering gems like “Taxman” (1966) and “Within You Without You” (1967), Harrison came out with the immortal “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (1968) and “Here Comes the Sun” (1969).
However, it took until the last studio album (Abbey Road) for George to get his name on the business side of a single (well, sort of). That honor came with “Something,” a track that shared prime billing with Lennon’s “Come Together” late in ’69.
After the group broke up the following year, it stood as George’s only Beatles track to peak on the Billboard charts.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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According to Billboard, the success of Ariana Grande's latest album earns her a number of major industry accolades. The most notable? By claiming the top three slots of this week's Billboard Hot 100, Grande has achieved a triumph last held by The Beatles in 1964.
"7 Rings" comes in at No. 1 for a fourth consecutive week as "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" and "Thank U, Next" round out the trio.
When The Beatles achieved the same victory, their top three hits included the still-iconic "Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist and Shout," and "Do You Want to Know A Secret." So yes, this is freaking major.
Source: Alison Foreman/mashable.com
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An exhibition by Yoko Ono is the first in a new gallery at Leeds Arts University. But it’s not the only time her work has been seen in the city, writes Chris Bond.
Back in 1966, a young experimental artist from Japan performed in Leeds. Many of those in the audience had probably never heard of her before, but by the end of the decade she was one of the most recognisable women on the planet. Her name was Yoko Ono.
Patrick Hughes, a surrealist artist, recalls the performance in the Vernon Street building at Leeds College of Art (now Leeds Arts University). “Yoko Ono visited with her then husband Anthony Cox, and their three-year-old daughter Kyoko. When we came into the lecture theatre, Yoko and Anthony were hidden in a large black bag on the dais and a full auditorium of students and staff looked at the bag for an hour.
Source: Chris Bond/yorkshirepost.co.uk
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Anand shared a collage of three images, one of our martyrs wrapped in the tricolour, one of United States of America President Donald Trump delivering a speech and another of the United Kingdom flag vis-a-vis European Union flag amid the Brexit row
Starting with lines from one of John Lennon’s popular songs ‘Imagine’, Anand wrote that three countries were going through 'testing times', but it was important as citizens 'to hold our peers and and leaders to the highest of standards, challenge political agendas and practice positive prayer/visualization of oneness'
Sonam K Ahuja’s husband Anand Ahuja posted an important message for the citizens in the aftermath of the dastardly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama that claimed the lives of 40 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force. Sharing lines from legendary singer John Lennon, the entrepreneur added that not just India, but even United States of America and United Kingdom were facing ‘testing times’, but it was important as citizens to hold our peers, leaders to the highest standards, challenge political agendas and work towards unity.
Source: republicworld.com
Beatlemania is set to rock the world once more and its coming to Belfast.
'All You Need is Love' is a spectacular multi-media concert featuring over 40 of the Fab Four's greatest hits performed alongside The National Philhamonic Concert Orchestra.
The nostalgic catalogue of songs will get its world premiere in 2019 on a 10-date UK and Ireland tour.
The concert will showcase in the Waterfront Hall on April 13.
All You Need is Love will give fans the chance to celebrate with live performances of classic tracks including Love Me Do, Twist and Shout and Hey Jude.
The tour coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' albums Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road.
Source: Christine Carrigan/belfastlive.co.uk
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Paul McCartney has announced plans to release an Egypt Station Traveller’s Edition box set, which is set to feature previously unreleased tracks. Egypt Station Traveller’s Edition, a deluxe limited edition box, will release on May 10. The Beatles legend released his 17th solo album Egypt Station via Capitol Records last year The album became McCartney’s first number one album in the U.S. since 1982. The strictly limited deluxe edition of Egypt Station will be a one-time-only pressing limited to 3,000 numbered cases. The Traveller’s Edition will “come in a vintage style suitcase and contain exclusive previously unreleased tracks, hidden rarities and all the essentials needed on your journey to Egypt Station and beyond,” McCartney’s website revealed.
Source:fm100.com
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Fifty years ago, the Beatles entered their final year as a working rock ’n’ roll band. And in the ensuing decades, the reasons for their eventual disbandment have been debated ad nauseam. Was it Yoko Ono’s constant presence in the studio? Paul McCartney’s increasingly controlling nature? John Lennon’s rage to break free of the partnership that he had brokered with McCartney after their meeting in a Liverpool churchyard in July 1957? Or simply Ringo Starr’s apathy or George Harrison’s need to strike out on his own and fulfill his promise as a songwriter in his own right?
In truth, although each of the above was a contributing factor, by January 1969 a much darker force had made its presence known in their world. During that fateful year, the Beatles suffered, as so many families do today, from the daily pain and bewilderment of an opioid addiction.
Although we have slowly come to recognize the opioid epidemic as the Western world’s most perilous health crisis, we have yet to turn the corner in terms of stemming its tide.
Source: salon.com
Ringo Starr features in Rolling Stone's latest episode of 'The First Time'. From recalling the moment he decided to be a drummer, to meeting John, Paul and George in Liverpool, the video highlights lots of 'first times' for the former Beatle.
Ringo reminisces about the first time he meditated with the Maharishi in India, in 1968. "He gave some lectures and then gave us a mantra that we could mediate on. That was the first time for me. And the last time I mediated was this morning. Peace and love!"
Source: genesis-publications.com
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